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Pakulihi Lekaho (Cataclysmic Gerosha)
}} Pakulihi Lekaho is a Marlquaanite superhero in The Gerosha Chronicles. Sworn to defend the Hawaiian islands from Icy Finger and other, similar threats, a chance encounter with the pirate Henry Lohtz transforms into a being highly resembling the Hawaiian god of sharks, Kamohoalii. He is mistakenly worshiped as such a being for a time. After conversion to Christianity, he flouts being worshiped as a god himself; and chooses a quite, secluded life. Due to his condition, he is able to live for a very long time. He is a supporting character in Lohtz and in Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana. Powers, weaknesses, and accessories Powers * Selachothropy: Paku's alternate form is that of a man-shark hybrid monster with a back fin coming out of his spine. He is similar to Anarteq's weresalmon form in this, except shark-themed. * Rapid accelerated healing: Similarly to Anarteq, Paku can recover from most damage rather quickly while submerged. * Slowed aging: While not truly immortal, Paku only ages physiologically about a year for every four years of everyone else. He was still very young when he underwent his becoming a Marlquaanite. Therefore, he can theoretically live for 500 years before a reset to his prime by shedding a Marlquaan spectral level, restarting him at physiologically 20. Assuming death at physiological 100 each time, this means he could live three additional lives to the one he is currently on, at 320 solar years each life, for a total of almost 1,000 extra years of life, death, and reincarnation before staying dead until Crack of Doom. * High durability: In shark mode, Paku is resistant to bullet fire from most low-velocity rounds, and can take hits from arrows with minimal damage. He can also walk barefoot on parts of islands that would be dangerous for most to do so, given how sharp the pumice and other igneous rock in the area can be. * Water current manipulation: To a limited extent, Paku can bend water around him to generate a waterspout. * Green Spectral Marlquaanite: The extra-powerful dose of Marlquaan bonding that happened to Paku and Roger Loviar to turn them into the shark lords Kamohoalii and Ukupanipo, respectively, led to Paku in particular entering the Blue Spectrum, granting him multiple extra lives. He sacrificed one of those lives to defeat Ukupanipo, allowing himself to rise from the dead victorious but also being reduced to having only four lives left. This extreme Marlquaan bond also resulted in Paku aging very slowly, though he is not truly immortal. Upon death from old age, however, he'd merely rejuvenate by about a century and shed a Marlquaan bond to become a Yellow Spectral. The process would repeat until he'd lost his Red Spectral bond and perished for real. The only other escape is to use stable ruby, like the Coin Tosser's or Beamer's, to strip away his bonds non-fatally. He would then begin aging normally until death. His aging may have been slowed down, but not to the same extent as that of the Gray Champion. * Extreme heat tolerance: Paku can endure some fireball blasts, and has even escaped areas of seawater being heated to almost boiling by volcanic debris. Perpetual summer weather also seems to have little ill effect on him. * Immunity to most aquatic venom: Venomous sea creatures seem to have no long-term ill effect on him. Although, he still avoids puffer fish. * High jumping: From water and in shark-man form, Paku can gain enough momentum to jump almost as high off the ground as Jackrabbit. * Ichthyoimancy: Paku can command sharks (and other fish, to a lesser extent) to do his bidding. * High salinity tolerance: Paku only desalinates water when he wants to drink something pleasant and have it not be salty. In shark mode, he can be around saltwater and appears to suffer no ill effects from its consumption. * Breathing underwater: His lungs can operate as gills, switching almost at will their method of functionality. Skills * Radio announcer: Paku has taken gigs at this as a way to drum up money. He averages five ads a month incognito as "Bob Leberon." These gigs generate him close to $500 of pre-taxation income per month. This yields him an after-taxes amount of about $380 in cash, which he mostly uses to pay property tax on his hut in order to keep other bureaus from harassing him and ruining his solitude. * Surfing: Paku has, in the past, been a surfing instructor. This, plus his discovery of underwater treasures, has made him just wealthy enough to acquire the materials needed to make his hut. * Fishing: Paku has taken this up as a hobby in his spare time (which his old age grants a lot of to him.) Even though he can command fish to his net, he sometimes doesn't - as a way to maintain a sense of sport. * Mission control comms: He has helped youth who were keepers of his secrets on quests to defend the islands. However, he does this very rarely. He has the equipment for it. * Trained combat warrior: In his early life, Paku was a soldier in the chief's army. * Housebuilding: To protect himself from overexposure, Paku secured a piece of land for himself near Captain Cook, and built a one-room hut to dwell inside of. * Hunting: When not in the mood for seafood, he usually hunts wild boar or feral sheep. * Cooking: Paku keeps a roasting spit around, to enjoy meals cooked the old-fashioned way. He prefers this over using his oven. * Scavenging: Most of what Paku has in his house that he didn't purchase or engineer over the years consists of things he has recovered at sea. * Electrical engineering: He's licensed enough throughout the years to do most of his own electrical work. * Plumbing: In addition to electrical work, Paku is skilled enough of a plumber to have developed his own desalination and filtration systems to have running water and sewage beneath his hut. He also has a shed near the hut that's a secret passageway to a cavern he himself excavated, which allows him to switch into shark mode unseen by casual eyes - and enter the ocean undetected. * Telecommunications: With his advanced ham radio, Paku can run a small, independent internet system - while remaining off the grid when he chooses to be. * Espionage: Paku has been keeping tabs on SCALLOP, the Icy Finger, and the Hebbleskins for years, should they threaten his islands. * Taxonomy: Centuries of exploring the oceans has led to him becoming intimately familiar with a lot of marine wildlife. Weaknesses * Depression: Living for centuries and outlasting multiple wives has left Paku feeling morally conflicted about the nature of his own existence; yet he resolves that God can figure out how to justify it if he can't. Even so, old age has made him become slightly apathetic, careless, and sloppy. * Only partial immortality: Unless de-powered properly, Paku will return to his prime upon dying of old age, and continue his cycle anew, until he dies as a Red Spectral Marlquaanite. Then, and only then, will he stay old and dead. His rejuvenations / reincarnations bring him no comfort; as he will still eventually one day die anyway - but only after watching everyone else he cares about die first. Equipment * Wind surfboard * Rowboat * Ham radio * Laptop / mission control station * Solar and current electric generators Character bio Early life Paku was born in 1754, and was prepared for life as a scout for Kamehameha's army as young as age 8. He was very religious, yet questioned all tenets of belief in the gods apart from the Nighmarchers - whom he was convinced were real. In 1770, he married his first wife, Alani. Becoming the Shark Lord In the late 1760s, the Order of the Oraphim sent a young Henry Lohtz on a quest with a crew to confiscate, hide, or destroy as many Marlquaanite rubies as could be found on the planet's surface, to keep them out of Icy Finger hands and prevent more Abdygalis Crystals from being forged. In 1771, this resulted in Icy Finger agent Roger Loviar using a Linguist's Ruby to force the Hawaiian Isles to understand English - and vice-versa. He took Kamehamaeha and his troops captive, right as the latter were in the heat of a civil war for control of the fledgling United Hawaiian Kingdom. Lohtz, made the new captain of his crew after his previous superior was murdered by Mickel, set off to rescue Kamehameha and recover the rubies. The only warrior to have escaped Loviar's notice was Paku, who decided to assist Lohtz in rescuing the natives and in retrieving the rubies. As Loviar was about to execute several island natives aboard his ship, Lohtz and Paku raided the ship. A careless Lohtz crewman, John Webertin, destroyed the Seafarer's Stomping Ruby while recovering it. The ruby's shattering led to both Paku and Loviar being hit with energy beams that led to Marlquaan bonds. Gaining the ability to become shark-man monstrosities at will, the two adversaries were then assumed by natives to have become avatars of Hawaiian shark gods. Loviar abandoned his prior army of Qalupaliks and began turning native captives into near-mindless shark-man monstrosities to do his bidding, thus becoming the avatar of Ukupanipo. Able to control native marine life instead, the benevolent Paku was viewed as the avatar of Kamohoalii.Lohtz While Kamehmeha and his troops went back to fighting their civil war, Lohtz and Paku continued their quest to defeat "Ukupanipo." Paku learned he was a Blue Spectral Marlquaanite, and sacrificed one of his spare lives to save Lohtz and crew at one point. Rising from the dead into the Green Spectrum, a slightly weakened Kamohoalii finally mastered his skills as a Shark Lord and gained the upperhand over the Red Spectral Ukupanipo, defeating and killing him. Lohtz shared his faith with as many islanders as would listen, with Paku saying he'd have to "think over" the place God had in relation to the Hawaiian deities he grew up believing in. Lohtz destroyed a second Linguist's Ruby to mostly reverse the effects of the previous one, thus allowing the islanders to obscure their communications from outsiders. With the Coin Tosser's Ruby still missing, Lohtz and his crew trusted Paku with finding it and safeguarding it. The pirate crew left in search of other adventures. Paku vowed that as Kamohoalii, he was the sacred protector of the isles from Icy Finger-level evils. Losing Alani Given Alani's hatred of sharks due to her mother dying from one, she grew to despise Paku's new mission in life. She couldn't reconcile being married to a "god of sharks," when she hated sharks so much. In spite his loving cajoling, she slipped away from his notice one evening, heading for the nearest active volcano. She prayed that Pele would purify her from having been touched by a lord of the animal she despised most, then tossed herself into the volcano before Paku could stop her. This event of his wife's suicide traumatized him greatly, though his family and hers urged him not to give up on love. They informed him that Alani was deeply disturbed most of her life, and that Paku's military service played a role in that. Unable to cope with the need to find love again right away, Paku committed himself to being Kamohoalii full time, and became a social recluse to improve his competence at his mission. Conversion to Christianity In the 1850s, some missionaries met with native Hawaiians, and both were chased indoors by a sighting of what were believed to be Nightmarchers. The missionaries insisted that prayers and faith would lead to the Nightmarchers being exposed as demons - not ancestors - and being dispelled. Remembering Lohtz's words from nearly a century before, Paku prayed for a sign. Not expecting one, he got one anyway. As the Nightmarchers set out to harm the home the missionaries were staying in, a figure of a woman wreathed in a green aura that appeared to be made of fireflies appeared in front of the house. She challenged the king of that band of Nightmarchers directly, and made war on them. An army of beings in white armor seemed to appear from out of thin air, and that specific band of Nightmarchers were never seen again after the battle. Paku would learn many years later after a news story out of Romania hit that this woman, Kanaka'ahi'ahi, was actually Cherinob, who'd nuked the demons' manifests and exiled them back to the Infernal Plane along the W Axis. He considered this proof that the God spoken of to him by Lohtz was the true God. Even so, he remained committed to defending the islands. He reached out to the Order of the Oraphim, and became an official affiliate. Kingdom overthrown In an effort to place their sympathizers in key positions of power in Hawaii, the Icy Finger backed a coup to overthrow Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893. Paku was kept busy fighting new manifestations, as more Hawaiian deity impersonators were sent his way - in which he nearly had to sacrifice another of his lives in order to defeat them all. He agreed with Hawaii becoming a state in the 1950s, though he had reservations in that he felt the Democratic Party couldn't be trusted. World War II Paku began, after the death of his third wife, to grow frustrated with how slowly he aged, wondering how many more women he'd live long enough to watch die. He took up an interest in radio communications. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he decided he needed to take his fight to the Japanese - as he determined that he couldn't defend the islands of Hawaii unless he went on the offensive. He had no power in the sky. This led to him at one point rescuing a caught-off-guard Anarteq and Becky Ryba with help from his army of sharks.Experiments and Offspring Upon announcement of V-J-Day, Paku returned to the islands to renew his vow to defend them. Feud with leftists Around 1961, the activities of communist insurgents to wreak havoc on the islands was met with retribution by an angry Kamohoalii. However, John Burns sought to tame the "shark god" by way of a hunt to find his hidden base and destroy it. In spite Paku's protests to the populace about the evils of socialism, the frenzy of islanders envious of mainlanders' pay wages proved insatiable. Outside Democrat officials furthermore offered lofty, often empty promises to much of the misled populace. The Hawaii Democratic Revolution proceeded, placing corrupt Democrats in control of the islands in a stranglehold of power that would last for many decades. Paku often made efforts to protect Hawaiians of Japanese descent from the Burns clan's persecution of them, only further resulting in his being declared an "obsolete relic." He was ridiculed for standing up for Christian evangelists in Hawaii, as he resembled a pagan god. He declared it defamatory to confuse evangelism with proselytizing, as brute force was often not used on students in Hawaii schools. Alas, some less-than-tolerant Buddhist activists convinced the Supreme Court to silence Christian evangelism in Hawaii schools, allowing everyone except the Christian demographic to have a voice. This resulted in Paku defending homeschoolers, though he was unable to win over as much support for their rights as he would have liked to. He was especially flustered that there would be such hostility to Christians teaching their own children the values of their own faith in a land that was over 60% Christian, when the Buddhists used as a battering ram to the measure constituted 8% at best of the population. He argued this constituted a "Tyranny of the Minority against the Majority," but calloused hearts ignored his pleas. In 1979, Frank Marshall Davis would attempt to poison Kamohoalii to death by having activists assault his house inland. Paku survived the attempt on his life, but had to sacrifice his property. Davis' goons brutally murdered his third wife, leading to Paku going on a mad quest to avenge her. It was around this time that he found a new place to hide near Captain Cook, and built his hut. He was able to make all of Davis' goons involved in the murder pay; but Davis himself slinked away, laughing maniacally. Paku also tried to rescue a young Barack Obama from being groomed by Davis; but failed. Backlash by natives against harm being done to the environment on account of this feud led to the party officials backing off from harassment of the shark lord. Paku vowed to only protect those Hawaiians who were not "incorrigible commie sh*tbags," and he withdrew from main society more than ever before. He became even more angry when history books were being forcibly rewritten - in some cases at gunpoint - to portray the island's old Republican establishment as being the "corrupt" party, and portraying the Democrats as heroes, with no mention made of the Democrats' atrocities nor of their harassment of him nor murder of his wife. Losing the battle for Hawaiian ideology, as they betrayed one foreign master for an even worse foreign master while imagining themselves "free," left Paku extremely bitter. He began siding more with separatists, who wished Hawaii to become an independent nation again. Battling Krampus In 1986, Krampus raided the island of Oahu. Temperatures became unseasonably cold. However, the Shark Lord was able to ward off this threat, sending Krampus retreating back to Germany. Meeting SCALLOP Agent Dale Ztedder of SCALLOP was sent by Darius to apprehend and interrogate the shark lord in 2013, at Obama's behest. Paku gave most of his backstory away while being interrogated, after waking up from having been sedated with Bezeetol. However, the two soon learned that it was a CIA trap to have Kamohoalii killed out of spite, due to his past feud with Obama's mentor Davis. Dale was merely to be collateral damage. Paku rescued Dale as they escaped the ship that they were on; and Paku used his power over marine life to kill the CIA agents. A grateful Dale informed Darius that they should leave Kamohoalii alone. Paku informed Dale to not send anyone else after him, unless the need were dire, that non-tourist outsiders were no longer welcome in his section of Hawaii. A young female journalist published to a local paper her account of the Shark Lord claiming that the CIA was trying to assassinate him, and the Democrats are actually the enemies of true Hawaiians. However, she was found decapitated in a dumpster a day later. The assassins made sure to leave by plane, thus preventing the Shark Lord from avenging her. Dale was scolded when he returned to Houston, as Darius warned that it was not in SCALLOP's best interests to defy a sitting US president. Dale insisted that neither is letting the CIA betray and murder SCALLOP personnel. However, Darius had Dale fired for saying this. Dale contacted Paku via a burner phone, to say: "You're right; the spiritual darkness and corruption are everywhere now, even in SCALLOP." However, he didn't notice that Agent Oisdaat was eavesdropping. Dale was not seen again until his skull was found in Death Valley. Paku took note of this, and vowed to warn whoever else SCALLOP sent his way. Deducing Rappaccini's plans for Kaiakahinali II Main article: Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana An old, bitter Paku leads a life of solitude in his hut, when his solitude is disrupted by the arrival of Isitoq "Izzy" Sundue - the current Anarteq. Izzy arrives with a flash drive full of codes stolen from the Icy Finger by Sodality Church spies, indicating various plans for Rappaccini's next wave of assaults. However, SCALLOP needs to know which plans are the valid plans, and which one will be Rappaccini's first wave of attacks. The goal is to assemble a group of heroes - along with the National Guard and anyone else SCALLOP can muster - to intercept whatever it is that Rappaccini has planned. Knowing that Paku has a negative opinion of Darius and of SCALLOP in general, Darius sends Agent Tod Morbekad to bribe Izzy into making the journey to locate Paku's hut and persuade him to help out. As a reward for trying, SCALLOP would return the favor by releasing Izzy's cousin Jissika from the prison in Sault Ste. Marie that she was sent to after blundering her effort to protect an Abdygalis Shard from Wishpon''Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo. If he succeeds at interviewing Kamohoalii, Izzy will see his cousin released from SCALLOP Juvenile Containment Center - where she'd have been transferred to. The two share some moments, discussing their histories and the general state of the Order. Afterward, Paku looks into the flash drive and deduces that the folder marked "Hoʻokipaʻo Nulu iā ia" ("Nulu sends his regards") is the one they should fear, as it is the only folder saying anything immediately coherent. Encrypted further is a file about "Kaiakahinali 2," roughly translating to "Second Great Flood." According to Paku, this indicates a reference to 2 Peter 3:10. Izzy inquires if Rappaccini intends to provoke Peter's Omninova into happening sooner, and Paku suggests that is unlikely. Peter's Omninova would require mastery of the 4th Spatial Dimension to evade the consequences of - something Rappaccini doesn't possess. Instead, Paku reasons that Rappaccini is using dramatic hyperbole to indicate a "great destruction of fire." The use of Hawaiian language to encode his messages is symbolic in that it invokes the idea that he will rain down "the wrath of Pele" on his chosen targets. Paku argues that "Nulu" is a misspelling of Nu'u - the distorted Hawaiian memory of Noah. The Second Great Flood is of lava rather than water, in which Rappaccini intends to send a herald who will be the Noah of Lava. Since destroying the entire Earth would force Rappaccini into exile on Phaeleel or Metheel, they deem it unlikely he intends to cover the ''entire planet in lava - but bring it economically to its knees through a series of localized volcanic eruptions producing enough fallout to cause rapid climate change. In other words, several preexisting volcanoes will be detonated - and some new ones formed in key high-population areas. Therefore, what SCALLOP needs is for someone to figure out which cities are on Rappaccini's hit list. They know it's only a matter of time; and Paku argues that they are in "the Time Before the Cinders Fall," which roughly translates to "Kahoopi li'ana." They need to discover which city will be at the heart of Project: Kaiakahinali, so that the band of heroes SCALLOP wants to recruit to aid the military with can intercept Rappaccini's herald before it's too late. Alas, they need more information from the Brummel family in order to know who that herald could be. Haikili threatens the islands Main article: Anarteq: Tropic Mercenary Paku takes in both Izzy and Jissika as refugees, hiring them to assist him in defending the islands and also shielding them from extradition back to Canada. Meanwhile, a troublemaker on the big island discovers the long-lost Coin Tosser's Ruby, and transforms himself into what the natives consider an avatar of Kamapua'a, the Pig Lord. He begins a crime spree, but is foiled by Izzy and Jissika's interference. However, they discover that Kamapua'a no longer has the ruby when they finally apprehend him. They also get the authorities to confess that he is afraid of someone else: a man now masquerading as the Hawaiian thunder-and-lightning god Haikili: who has managed to make a stylized sword to guide and direct his lightning with a-la the Gray Champion's Fishkiller! Paku and his new gang have to get creative to figure out what this Haikili-impersonating gangster's real plan is - and how to avoid getting electrocuted while taking him down. Aiding in Mozambique Main article: Sodality: Vindication While Anarteq and Nemara are busy in western Canada dealing with the return of Wishpon, Paku travels to Mozambique to lend a hand to Team Spaghetti Liberation, as he fears they'll be in way over their heads if they need support at sea. Family once more Main article: Swappernetters Jissika and her new boyfriend flee to Hawaii to start life over with Paku - and to help raise children in the hopes that one can succeed Paku one day as the new Kamohoalii. Meanwhile, Paku gets married again finally. Assisting Anarteq at Lough Melvin Main article: Anarteq: Envoy to Lough Melvin Paku and Jissika bring their families to Ireland to help Izzy and Moira Flanagan (the new Li'Ban) defeat the Famorians, who've begun attacking political opponents using Qalupaliks and Anitos. Personality While very understanding in his youth, Paku could be ruthless as a warrior in the king's army. He later became a steadfast and patriotic defender of the islands as Kamohoalii, both for the kingdom and later for the state. His enthusiasm for country / state waned slightly after seeing Democrat Party corruption in the islands, especially when Frank Marshall Davis and his friends were allowed to get away by law enforcement with the murder of Paku's wife. Paku never gave up on his vows to live near the islands and defend them; but he did become very bitter over the islands' political climate. He became depressed and reclusive, even a little foul-mouthed amidst a self-imposed exile from mainstream society. His heart warmed up again somewhat after meeting the Sundue cousins; though he retained a strong mistrust for SCALLOP due to Darius Philippine's shady and underhanded methodology. Development In February of 2016, the Marvel: Avengers Alliance Fanfic Universe Wiki held a contest for ancient gods to be introduced as concepts for playable characters for that game during its run on Facebook, before Playdom took it down. This led to a lot of revision to certain elements of Gerosha mythos to expand Anarteq mythos so that a Marlquaanite could be mistaken by the ancients for a god and worshiped as one, thus allowing some mythology into the contest. To qualify, the ancient god for the contest had to be one that wasn't already canon to Marvel or DC, so Norse and Greek mythology were off limits. Few things in Inuit mythology caught the interest of Dozerfleet, so emphasis was moved to Hawaiian mythology. Pele seemed too predictable. Therefore, a random search on Wikipedia yielded Kamohoalii as a candidate. A quick write-up was submitted for the MAA Fanfic Universe, and thus the Earth-12131-F version of Pakulihi Lekaho as Kamoholaii was born - with a built-in backstory of his being from Earth-G7.2.1 initially, then cloned via the Percolation Wave. Not wishing for the character to go to waste, Dozerfleet Comics imported Kamohoalii into the main Earth-G7 canon. Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana was added to the project list for the Legacy volume as a short story in 2019. In addition to providing a glimpse into Paku's life after the events in Lohtz and Experiments and Offspring - which the outlines were revised to add him to - the story served as a prelude to Ciem: Ash Cloud, and an immediate follow-up to Ciem: Inferno and Sniperbadger: Fall of the Critter Resistance - detailing Candi's life in the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility. In addition to all of this, Kahoopiliana served as a tie-in to the making of Lee Loo La's Forfica Mk. I Ciem suit. Kahoopilana likewise also serves as a follow-up to Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo, and sets the stage for Anarteq: Tropic Mercenary. Paku was declared to be a supporting character for Anarteq in all adventures involving him post-''Guardian of the Soo'', including making an appearance in Anarteq: Envoy to Lough Melvin. Trivia * Given how relieved he was at Cherinob defeating the Nightmarchers, his Crossover Gerosha counterpart was in total dismay that the Multiversal Patrol that operated the Percolation Warriors would name the repurposed 2007 OR10 of Dromedia "Menehune," and that they'd want to name its reclaimed moon "Nightmarcher." References See also * Isitoq Sundue (Cataclysmic Gerosha) * Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana Category:Marlquaanites Category:Dozerfleet superheroes Category:Kahoopiliana characters Category:Pseudo-Mers Category:Lohtz characters